World Projects Faculty Member

Miguel Ángel Felipe

Miguel Ángel Felipe was born and began his musical studies in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Today, Dr. Felipe is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. He also serves as director of music and liturgy at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, home to one of the state’s largest church music programs.

Summers, he serves as artistic director of the International Meeting on Choral Music in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. Most recently, he was Visiting Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at the Oberlin College & Conservatory and Artistic Director of the Boston Choral Ensemble. Before that, he was Interim Choral Director and Visiting Lecturer in Music at Mt. Holyoke College, Associate Director of Choral Studies at The Boston Conservatory, and Assistant Conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum at Harvard University. He has conducted choirs at the University of Cincinnati, Boston University, The Boston Conservatory, Brown University, and Harvard University. He has led community choirs in Maine, Massachusetts, and Ohio, and has served as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the Eastern US and in Brazil and Southeast Asia.

As a child, Felipe studied piano privately and double bass in the public schools before going on to graduate from the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy where he played bass in the school’s orchestra and earned a diploma in piano. Felipe’s studies continued at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he earned a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, studying with conductors John Leman and Christopher Zimmerman. While in Cincinnati he established and led several instrumental ensembles and choral ensembles and worked at two local churches including The Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, seat of the archbishop of Cincinnati.

After relocating to Boston in 1999, Felipe attended the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, Michael Jinbo, director. He also studied conducting at Boston University where he earned a masters and doctorate studying with Dr. Ann
Howard Jones, David Hoose, Craig Smith, and Joseph Flummerfelt. In 2004 Felipe was appointed Music Director of the Boston Choral Ensemble, one of the city’s premiere chamber choirs. The following year he served as visiting faculty at Brown University. At the same time, he was appointed at The Boston Conservatory where he has taught courses in choral repertoire and performance practice, aural skills, harmony and counterpoint, and has led the school’s Women’s Chorus and, on occasion, the Orchestra. In 2008 Felipe was appointed assistant conductor of Harvard University’s Collegium Musicum, Dr. Jameson Marvin, conductor.com

As a performer, Felipe has long been an advocate for new music. In the last ten years, he has commissioned and premiered dozens of works for chamber orchestra, wind ensemble, women’s chorus, men’s chorus, and mixed chorus. In 2007 Felipe established the Boston Choral Ensemble Commission Competition: the Northeast’s largest choral commissioning project of its kind.

As a researcher and teacher, Felipe’s research interests focus on choral innovations in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, on concepts of choral societies’ influence in cultural development, and on conducting pedagogy. Working with Prof. André de Quadros while at Boston University, his editorial work has appeared in choral editions published by Carus Verlag, Germany; Earthsongs; and Hinshaw Music. Felipe has traveled to Indonesia on several occasions where he has led workshops and adjudicated international chorus competitions.

Dr. Felipe is a proud member of the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, the National Collegiate Choral Organization, the International Federation for Choral Music, and Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society.